WRITTEN BY BAHA’A AL THEBIAN

ERP Implementation Ethics for successful projects

ERP Implementation Ethics For Successful Projects

GAMA Project Management

Volunteer Program

Table of Contents

Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1

Who are concerns of ERP Implementation? ................................... 1

Advices and ethics codes ................................................................ 2

Summary of ERP Implementation Ethics ...................................................... 3

Team Work................................................................................................................................... 3

Write what you do and do what you write ...................................................................................... 4

Being open for Knowledge Transfer ....................................................................................... 5

Listen more then you talk ......................................................................................................... 5

No Gold plating and fit to scope .............................................................................................. 6

ERP Implementation’s Team Satisfaction .............................................................................. 7

ERP Implementation’s Loyalty ................................................................................................. 8

Communication Ethics ............................................................................................................. 9

Do the right things .................................................................................................................. 10

Be honest and act with integrity ............................................................................................ 11

Act ethically, fairly and professionally .................................................................................. 11

Don’t be Selfish ....................................................................................................................... 12

Help others in knowledge and practices .............................................................................. 13

Try to follow copy rights and other laws .............................................................................. 13

Information Confidentiality ..................................................................................................... 14

Knowledge should be shared…. ..................................................................... 15

E R P I M P L E M E N T A T I O N E T H I C S

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Introduction

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning is not Just a Business Solution; it is a company culture, procedures and policies.

RP Implementations is not building a system or installing a new software but in reality it is a big world where people could gain knowledge, experience and communication skills. Usually people who are working in such these fields are well educated, have strong knowledge in business

best practices, deep knowledge in business areas to be sure that whatever the ERP application which they are implementing could meet business needs and cover business requirements.

In- my opinion Enterprise Resource

Planning couldn’t be only computer applications, Software or other solutions, it should be policies, procedures, company’s behaviors or it should be defined as “What to follow within an organization to reach what planned to and requested goals”.

Who are concerns of ERP Implementation?

ERP Consultants, Implementer, Specialist, Project Managers, Team Leader or any professional working in such related rules should know very well the full meaning of ERP.

Good Argument

William Shakespeare is said:

“Life is only Minimum great theater, and that all men and women are the only players on this stage”.

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E R P I M P L E M E N T A T I O N E T H I C S

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We can translate the same in ERP implementation real world as “Each team member should play his rule professionally, for the interest for his project, meeting that implementation objectives without wrong decisions, faults, or / and wrong practice”. In the Real World Faults, additions or missing paragraph in a play could add unique favor and draw special smile for the attendances, change play’s scenarios could make some fun when the actors are presenting the play but in ERP’s it could lead to Implementation failure Or late in delivery which is the main ERP Implementation constrains and highly risky failure key factors. Actors who are presenting a play in theater should have actor’s ethics as well as ERP member should have the same ethics to give the best presentation for the attendances whom are basically the ERP implementation stake holder.

Advices and ethics codes

In all religions, people should be respected, respect each other and highly ethically communication should be in the place.

Work and business ethics should be placed inside the employee’s but even the implementation of an ERP should have its own ethics.

Religion ethics,

business ethics,

ERP Implementation

Ethics

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Summary of ERP Implementation Ethics

Team Work “Don’t create competition environment within your ERP implementation team”

Competition is like a war which basically difficult to be fair, the results of any ware since 1990’s produced a lot of losses for the winner or loser. In ERP Implementations member’s Competitions, the result will not heart anybody or destroy cities but it will have effects on the project, ERP implementations, the project goals and the main result it will destroy the communication panels, relation between implementation member team who will work in the same ERP implementation or usually who will continue working with other ERP Implementations projects again and again. Best ERP Implementations player, who is good player within the same team, most time during ERP implementations resources are communicating as well as project manager or team leaders.

Figure 1- Be a good Team Player

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Write what you do and do what you write

One of the most popular ISO standards and procedures is to write what you are planning to do, one of PMI concepts that “when you are not planning then you are planning to failure”.

ERP Implementations member should plan what they have to do, what they are doing, what/when to achieve and how to close the achievements. When you did a task or finish phase or when you are moving from phase to phase/from task to task always try to record or write what you achieved , what you did or note down the learned lessons from the previous experiment. One of PMI standards for managing the projects professionally: During most of the project processes Project Team has to update the organizational Process Assets where you will record what you achieved or what you faced, what you solved or what needs to be solved. .

Figure 2 - Plan what to do and write what is done

Remember!!

Plan - Do- Check -

Act

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Being open for Knowledge Transfer

Always, try to be initiator in knowledge transfer, never think that you are losing when you transfer the knowledge. An Old man advices and essays

“I gain this knowledge before you then never think that you will know it more than me”. If you are always keep updating and developing your knowledge then when you transfer it to other members then your knowledge base size will be always larger than the others. During ERP Implementation, try always to gain knowledge, experience from other ERP Implementations sides, colleges, team member, leaders, managers, prospects, and customer or from practice.

Listen more then you talk

One of the most important concepts for Implementations team member which should follow is to understand the needs, requirements which you will gain from different analysis tools. Communication Philosophy experts saying “Body language is taking 70% of communication” or sometimes they call it Non- Verbal communications, most of the time communication to understand the needs, requirements could be through face to face meeting. Physical interaction could be the most success communication and most professional explaining method. Don’t forget that you are implementing ERP for people who need you to hear from them not to hear from you especially at the beginning stages of an ERP Implementations processes.

Figure 3- Listen then writ

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No Gold plating and fit to scope

It could be ambiguous statement but the professional in PMI always Are saying: “NO GOLD PLATING” Always remember that you have an agreed clear scope, try to be within the scope of your mission, or of your task. Beneficiary of ERP implementation: Who is looking to the results of ERP implementation and you have to satisfy his requirements and needs, no extra efforts, benefits you should give without covering the basic needs, extra benefits could guide to open scope or scope creeping and couldn’t satisfy the main and major needs of ERP Implementation. In ERP Implementations projects, there is no material to loose or goods to be free of charge the main cost of project is time and time only. The popular Projects Triple Constrains is (Time, Scope and Cost), there are other constrains and one of my personal philosophies in ERP Implementations is requirements and ERP needs understanding by Implementations team members.

Figure 4 - Rectangle Project Constraints

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ERP Implementation’s Team Satisfaction

In the real world

It is a fact to:

Always help yourself then help the others in the most dangers situations, if you didn’t help yourself first may be you will not be able to give help hands to others. ERP Implementation Team could be defined as : who are related to the ERP Implementations either who are implementing, giving requirements, coordinating, monitoring, or will get the final benefit from ERP Implementations in another world they call it Project Stakeholders in PMI definitions. Who are implementing the ERP; most probably will not be one resource and usually they are a team of two or more members, so always don’t hesitate to give help hand for other resources if they need your help and remember that all of you are targeting the project scope. In the other hand don’t waste your time in helping the other before helping yourself, “once deliverables is better than zero deliverables”; sure that “ten is the best but in the worst scenarios one is better than zero”. ERP Implementations usually is applying or implementing software, you are the expert of the software and you know all functionalities which could be hidden to other parties so always try to be fair in satisfying the others, suggesting the hidden functionalities. “Don’t hide what you know, to gain what other knows” Changing ERP resources usually happen within ERP Implementations either it is not recommended but when this happen; Remember: You are replacing one of your team members or collogue, as one of the most important ethics which you should focus on is “respect your team member”. When you are replacing any team member, may be you will find some activities are missing, tasks not have been done yet, you faced some troubles because of the previous team member lack in experience or other reasons, In this case try to remember that people are interacting based on the conditions at that time and based on the surrounded environment. Try to find the reasons for that member and don’t blame him, don’t say badly about him because you don’t know the conditions at that time.

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ERP Implementation’s Loyalty

Employee loyalty is a very huge topic in Human Resources Management- HRM, but ERP Implementations loyalty is focusing on what you have to do in If- then Cases.

Cases and Scenarios:

i. If you are implementing software and you faced a problem with the

Implementations stakeholder how you should interact?

ii. If there is a need to provide in parallel solution to reach the achievement,

are you interested to provide some help to find it, or it is the other

people’s responsibilities?

iii. If you know that Implementation’s Stakeholder is asking to implement

something could guide to wrong results, financial losses or any negative

effect, what should you do?

“ERP Implementation success, it is your success too”

iv. If you feel that you are working out of your implementation scope then

what to do?

v. If I’m the best team member then how should I interact within the team?

Always give the knowledge before somebody asks you about; “You are loyal to your qualified team, so be ready” Respect your team, be positive with your team, all team members not necessary your friends but college’s respecting should guide you. Always raise the issue to who is managing the implementation or to who is interested in the implementation and can make decision. Be project oriented member and don’t forget to monitor your tasks and do your best to achieve it

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then help the others “you have the same goal such as other member has”.

Note

Solving problems is one of the skills which distinguish people from each other; it could be built by being educated, good learner and open for experiments.

Communication Ethics

In ERP Implementations there will be always a place where team member usually meet, discuss and work; it could be called ware room. Be polite in providing new ideas, new suggestions always are preferable but keep in mind it shouldn’t be executed “it is suggestions only”. Always keep in mind to discuss and raise the issues within team member only, don’t talk in front of strangers or if other are involved. Discuss the other behaviors individually and don’t discuss it in public. “One of the most team conflicts resolving tool is confronting which will guide to win- to – win situation as per PMI School”. Most of team communication should be using verbal communication type, it is better if it is written but in normal team communication it should be face to face communication.

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Figure 5 - Communication Chanels

Do the right things

Try always to do the right thing in right time, as mentioned above “plan what you are going to do, when and what to do”. If you don’t know what is the right thing then try to ask, learn, and read to build a solid background of the right things which you have to do. Your manager is the responsible of deliverables but be sure it is your deliverables not his deliverables, so be careful when you are applying the right thing. “You are applying the good things

because you are good”

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Be honest and act with integrity

During ERP Implementation, remember you are a target for shareholder to get the maximum knowledge from you, be honest of what you are telling the others. Others are waiting your consultations to take decisions, so take a small breath then tell the other the honest and the right things, if you don’t know then tell that you don’t know or promise that you well get it and come back to them. Always, be sure that you are telling the right thing

not expectations or personal opinions, me be you are right or wrong where you will drive the decision to be failure.

“Be modest always”

Act ethically, fairly and professionally

You are usually not dealing with machines, or tools; remember you are dealing with Human people who have different understanding of things. Be clear in your language, use one language “Use one face”, you are a respected person and people usually interact with you based on that , so do as what they are doing.

Be fair in judgments, usually when you are implementing an ERP then stakeholders usually see what they are following right now is the true but you are coming to change most of what they are following, so be fair in judging if they ask you about your opinion and try to be polite as much as you can when you are telling them the best practice or what you are going to apply.

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Professionalism is one word but it is very difficult to get the full meaning of it, but you are the guide of what should be the best and leading the Implementations to reach the best; so guide it to the best to reach the goals.

Don’t be Selfish

Remember, you are one of a team, you are not alone and people depending on you to do their tasks, think about others and how they can achieve their tasks if they are depending on yours.

“People around you have a lot of goals to achieve, try to be positive and help them to achieve it”

:Professionalism is one word but it is very difficult to get the full meaning of it, but you are the guide of what should be the best and leading the Implementations to reach the best; so guide it to the best to reach the goals.

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Help others in knowledge and practices

As a member of an ERP implementation team; you have to know that people capabilities are different from one to one, usually the project-ized organization is hiring a fresh graduates, juniors and seniors in ERP fields, so the knowledge should be allows coming from above level to the lower level or in another words: “Seniors have to transfer the knowledge to the Juniors” to make productive teams.

Usually people are able to solve their own problems by themselves but in other scenarios they will have complex problems which need help hand from other team member. Try always to put you hand in solving problem; it will give you two main benefits:

A. Increase your skills in problem solving.

B. Solve the main problem which will be an added value to your team.

Try to follow copy rights and other laws

If your organization or your team has software copy writes then you will not be happy if someone gets your software without licenses, usually the organizations who have copy writes of Books, Software or others makes some restriction in use for the un authorized usage. Access denied, stopping software functionality will increase your implementation risk which had not been considered before, sudden damage, stopping in software running; will affect your implementation which you started with a highly ethics .

Remember “People are appreciating you and your team as well”.

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Information Confidentiality

We talked about copy writes and how we should respect the other people inventions, but he information confidentiality is one of the most important ethically factor within the ERP Implementation. People usually spends a lot of time to gain the others trust, the stakeholder of your ERP implementation is trusting you because you have their information, data, business cycles, business success factors which should be considered as non-sharable information.

Try always to gain your implementation’s stake holder’s trust by keeping their secrets which they trust you when they told you about. One of the most important habits in ERP implementation: “Implementation team members have to give some examples about different ERP areas, so they have to tell about previous experiments, try always not to tell the others of whom you are taking about or try to use X concept to hide the names of your examples”. The previous experiments and the other experiments are good lessons to you and your team which should be utilized in the proper way to increase your organizational assets processes.

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Knowledge should be shared….

Please don’t hesitate to send me your comments and notes, we could make this materials more and more useful if I get from you opinions and different inputs.

Share with me your comments, inquiries, and notes to enhance our knowledge and make changes which will could be a success factors in our life.

With all my best regards,

Baha’a Al Thebian

Baha’a Al Thebian GAMA Project Management Volunteer Program ERP Consultant Phone +966 567 02 6060 Skype Bahaa.Thebyan